NOT that we’re surprised, but post-lockout NBA basketball looks exactly like the pre-lockout version. The game has “evolved” into “eight-man clearout.” Eight guys loiter somewhere far from the basket watching two guys play one-on-one. At best, it has become a two-on-two game.

And it’s a drag.

By design and definition, the NBA’s “modern” version removes much of the artistry from basketball. And most coaches seem to be working off a copy of the same, minimalist plan. Heck, ball movement on the run and quick, inside passing now seem a matter of accident.

Residually, there’s almost nothing pertinent for NBA broadcasters to analyze. Virtually every game now includes the following second-half observation: “Someone has to take the game over.”

Really? Are there no other options? Is there no promise that a team can take over the game, that all five players acting in concert can serve the singular purpose of winning the game? Five words come to mind: DeBusschere, Reed, Bradley, Barnett, Frazier. Can’t anyone at least give that kind of game a shot?

If NBA basketball were today introduced to the public for the first time, there would indeed be a legitimate reason to stage charity games for needy NBA players. *WHAT am I missing here? Jerry Glanville says he’s jumping Fox to work on CBS’ NFL pregame show. Glanville says that Fox messed up by not getting his signature on his contract to work this past season. This has been portrayed in newspapers throughout the country as a coup for CBS, a great blunder by Fox.

Then Fox responds by saying that Glanville, regardless of what he says or thinks, still is contractually bound to Fox.

Huh? Exactly what is it that makes Jerry Glanville so appealing? Is it his lack of preparation for game telecasts, or his growing unfamiliarity with players and coaches? Has either network bothered to check with viewers? They don’t like Glanville. He’s all style and no substance, form over function.

One would think that Fox would be jumping for joy over the news that Glanville unilaterally decided to split. That saves time and money on the exit interview.

But that’s TV. Two networks fighting over a guy few people can stomach. Perhaps CBS feels that Glanville can assume the hee-haw role that Terry Bradshaw provides Fox. But why in the name of Hacksaw Reynolds would anyone want to copy Fox’ pregame show? But that’s TV. No bad idea goes uncopied. *THREE weeks ago this space contained a column that pointed to the unfathomable degree of frustration experienced by fans trying to first reach, then deal with the Yankee ticket office. Since then, we’ve received more than 35 missives from readers detailing their horror stories on the same issue.

And more than half of those fans were seeking to purchase tickets on behalf of groups, meaning one call handled in a timely, responsive manner could result in the sale of scores of tickets. It seems clear the Yanks want fans to buy through TicketMaster, which tacks on a surcharge to every ticket’s purchase while the Yanks can reduce overhead in their ticket department.

The column of three weeks ago was a reprise of ones I wrote two years ago and four years ago. Those columns, too, led to dozens of readers providing us with nightmarish tales of trying to purchase tickets through the Yankee ticket office.

George Steinbrenner, in a 1995 letter to a fan who was unable to buy 20 best-available seats for a single game because he was put on hold for hours at a time, promised to fix the problem, post haste:

“I was forwarded Mr. Mushnick’s article of April 24 from The New York Post, and while I don’t have much respect for Mr. Mushnick who seldom, if ever, attends Yankee games at Yankee Stadium, I am grateful to him for bringing to light some serious problems which exist in our Ticket Department.”

Steinbrenner added that he had instituted major changes to cure the Yankee ticket office’s you-can’t-get-there-from-here reality. But here we are, four years later, and the horror stories not only persist, they’ve risen in volume.

Remember this the next time Steinbrenner and Mayor Giuliani bang the drums for a new, taxpayer-funded Yankee Stadium on the grounds that the Yanks don’t draw in The Bronx. They drew nearly 3 million customers last season. And that, as always, was without even trying. ARECENT issue of the Irish Echo newspaper gave the Mets a beating over its “Irish Night” promotion, held last August.

The Mets, in a news release last May, stated said that the club, in conjunction with Irish Night, would be “excited” to make a donation to Famine Ship Limited, a project to restore the Jeanie Johnston, a famine-era ship that made 16 crossings to America between 1847 and 1855, remarkably without a single death during passage.

With 35,571 tickets sold for Irish Night – many bought as the result of the response from Irish-American organizations – the restoration project expected a donation of no less than four figures. Five months later, the check arrived – a check for $855.

Jeff Cleary, spokesman for Famine Ship Limited, was infuriated. He said that his group alone was responsible for the sale of $4,000 worth of tickets.

The Mets said that their donation represents the sale of 90 mezzanine tickets at $9.50 per ticket, as per a pre-determined formula.

Regardless, the Mets, who months ago issued a news release championing the fact that Irish Night was in no small part a charitable endeavor, issued no release championing their donation of 855 bucks. *JOHN Bothe, highly regarded harness-race caller at the Meadowlands (and a weatherman for WCBS radio), has long been known to many insiders as a recovering compulsive gambler, a fellow still digging out from beneath a pile of six-figure debt.

Last week Bothe sued the Meadowlands, claiming the track wanted him to appear as a handicapper on its in-house TV show. Bothe said that such a role could spark his return to gambling. He also claimed that the track threatened to reduce his pay unless he appeared on the show.

But there’s a hole in this story. While the Meadowlands won’t comment on matters under litigation, why on earth would the track insist that a guy who went broke trying to pick winners serve as its handicapper?